AIRSLIDE Covered Hoppers: where are they now?
Suddenly in the past year, the AIRSLIDE Covered Hopper numbers over the CN/GTW mainline has suddenly dropped.
Are the commodities that were hauled in AIRSLIDE Covered Hoppers not being used much in the Great Lakes States?
Are the AIRSLIDE Covered Hoppers being used more in other parts of the country?
Has Trinity RailCar come up with a great new replacement for these Covered Hoppers?
Thanks.
Andrew Falconer
I missed the old posts.
There are still a lot of Sid Richardson Carbon Black hoppers out there. If those are AIRSLIDE covered hoppers, then they are the only ones coming through the area lately.
I suppose the traffic for some commodities has shifted away from Michigan’s upper and lower pennisulas.
Andrew
There have not been any Airslide cars built since about 1993. Most of the cars once seen in specialized service have been downgraded to handling stuff like fly ash.
Any commodity that was handled in an Airslide car can probably be handled as well in other types of covered hoppers that haul more payload, by at least five percent.
The carbon-black cars are not Airslide cars–they have a tremendous size advantage over Airslide cars that were once used in this service.